THE VILLAGES

Himara's villages are generally assembled villages, comprised of different neighbourhoods. These neighbourhoods or ensembles are formed from family dwellings with kinship ties between each other. Ensembles are generally located nearby. In general, every village of the region has a center that is not defined according to certain criteria, linked to various objects, sometimes with a source water or a century-old plane tree and sometimes with a cult object like a church.

The road network of villages does not follow some certain criteria. The road crosses and transverse dwellings, paved with cobblestones. Roads usually have a kind of drainage channel in the center to prevent water from passing through the walls of the houses, which often are the border of the road. When the paths are very steep, they are built in a ladder design. The village houses are always accompanied by surrounding walls, where inside these walls are located the house, the garden and the grape vines.

TYPOLOGIES OF A DWELLING

Composed dwelling with half floor, the upper floor volume is partially ground and partly on the floor. This snout solution is directly affected by the sloping ground on which these dwellings have been erected. The lower environment has a separate entrance, which is covered by a massive 185x68x22cm large stone. The upper habitable environment seems to have been the only one and, as mentioned, partially gout in the bottom. Exactly at the bottom end of this dwelling we find a characteristic chamber near the fence side to which three more are placed asymmetrically. External stone steps lead to the entrance of this environment. The masonry of this dwelling is built of thick, coarse, drawn stones, which are excavated nearby.

THE DWELLING AND ITS YARD

Himara's dwelling always lies within a siege, which limits a certain plot, which forms the yard of the dwelling, its constituent part also in the juridical sense. The siege of the yard is generally made of stone masonry, but in the poorer families, who lived in the ground floor houses and even in huts, this encircling also faces simple wooden fence. Despite the economic circumstances the yard is still small. The cause for this phenomenon is the livestock economy which operated by keeping livestock outside the village. In the perimeter wall, the main place was certainly occupied by the entrance gate, which did not have a fixed position in relation to the dwelling.

THE FIREPLACE

The fire place is the most ancient compositional unit of the Himariot dwelling. The fireplace can be found in almost every house built on our region. The fireplace carries different functions in relation to the type of dwelling. In houses with a single living room, the fireplace carries out all the vital functions of a family, the stay, the cooking, the sleep and the reception of a friend.